Stand for supporting phonograph records

ABSTRACT

A stand for supporting photograph records in their jackets in a vertical or near vertical orientation, said stand comprising a one piece body made of a synthetic plastics material and having a rectangular base, a back wall, and two L-shaped side walls projecting from the base and the back wall. Preferably, at least one L-shaped separation wall projects from the base and the back wall between the two side walls.

United States Patent 1 J uhlin [111 3,759,395 1 Sept. 18, 1973 STAND FOR SUPPORTING PI-IONOGRAPII RECORDS [75] Inventor: Sven-Erik Juhlin,Gustavsberg,

Sweden [73] Assignee: Aktiebolaget Gustavsbergs Fabriker,

Gustavsberg, Sweden [22] Filed: Sept. 1, 1971 [21] App]. No.: 177,035

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 3, 1971 Germany G 71 03 919.5

[52] US. Cl 211/40, 206/73, 211/11, 211/50, 220/22, 312/10 [51] Int. Cl A47b 81/06 [58] Field of Search 211/40,51,41,50,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,941,670 6/ 1960 Fagan 211/49 R 3,092,256 6/1963 Vemik Santori 21 1/40 3,502,222 3/1970 Crafoord 211/40 2,690,843 10/1954 Ament 211/40 3,338,421 8/1967 Lyman..... 312/10 X 3,187,890 6/1965 Brown 206/73 2,825,465 3/1958 Burgo 211/40 2,582,785 1/1952 Luppold 206/73 3,247,809 4/1966 Thomson 108/6 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,282,086 12/1961 France 312/9 24,497 11/1907 Great Britain ..312/10 Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Abraham Frankel Attorney-David Toren et a1.

57 ABSTRACT A stand for supporting photograph records in their jackets in a vertical or near vertical orientation, said stand comprising a one piece body made of a synthetic plastics material and having a rectangular base, a back wall, and two L-shaped side walls projecting from the base and the back wall. Preferably, at least one L- shaped separation wall projects from the base and the back wall between the two side walls.

1 Claim, 1 Drawing Figure Pmcminsimm INVENTOR SI/Eri- EKIK will/JL/A/ STAND FOR SUPPORTING PHONOGRAPH RECORDS The invention relates to stands for supporting flat plate-like articles, particularly gramaphone records.

Stands for gramaphone records are known, consisting of a frame from which wire hoops project at equal distances from each other along the common axis of the hoops. The gramaphone records are inserted, without their sleeves, between the wire hoops. This type of gramaphone record stand has several disadvantages. In the first place the records are not protected from dirt and they are easily scratched; and secondly, the stands are comparatively costly to manufacture since they are made from a large number of individual parts.

It is also known to keep gramaphone records in albums. Each record to be stored is removed from its sleeve and inserted into a pocket or envelope in-the album. However, albums for gramaphone records lack strength and occupy a great deal of space. It is also known to store gramaphone records in boxes having lids which can be opened and closed. This method involves considerable botherin that, before a particular record can be extracted from the box, first of all the lid has to be opened, and then the records then have to be taken out of the box one after the other until the desired record is reached, because the box, which is closed on three sides, does not allow the individual records to be inspected in situ in the box. Furthermore, a record storage box of this kind is also comparatively costly to manufacture.

The object of the present invention is to provide a stand in which gramaphone records can be stored compactly in their sleeves while allowing easy access to the records, and which is comparatively inexpensive to manufacture. According to the present invention therefore, a stand for supporting flat plate-like articles, such as gramaphone records intheir sleeves, comprises a one-piece body made of a synthetic plastics material and having a rectangular base, a back wall, and two L- shaped side walls projecting from the base and the back wall. Such a stand, consisting of a single piece plastics injection moulding, can be manufactured in large quantitles at comparatively little cost. The stand is light in weight, and because of'the L-shaped side walls, is economical with regard to the amount of material used in making it. Gramaphone records, each in its initial sleeve, may be stored on the stand in such a way that the titles of the records can easily be read without removing them from the stand.

Preferably, the body is formed integrally with at least one L-shaped separation wall which projects from the base and the back wall between-the two side walls. The

' sub-division of the stand into two or more comparttant, the separation walls prevent the records from leaning over too much, particularly if there are only a few records in each group. If a gramaphone record is stored leaning at an angle to a support surface, it tends to deform in the course of time, impairing the subsequent accuracy of reproduction from the record. The risk of warping is increased if a large number of records is stored in a leaning group, and the angle to the vertical is large. This risk is minimised by sub-dividing the record stand into separate compartments.

Preferably the base and the back wall have the same dimensions so that the stand can be used with either the base or the back "Wall horizontal. The L-shaped walls allow a search to be made easily through records stored on the stand, in spite of the fact. that they may be arranged in groups, by separation walls, without it being necessary to remove them from the stand.

Preferably, the webs of the L-shaped separation wall or walls are shorter than those of the side walls. This arrangement improves the appearance of the stand in that, when the stand is full of records, the separation wall remains invisible. Also, a protective hood may be placed over the stand in contact with the edges of the base and the back wall.

An example of a stand in accordance with the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

The stand 1 is designed to support a number of gramaphone records which are housed in their sleeves, and consists of a base 2 and a back wall 3, which has the samedimens'ions as, and extends at right angles to, the base 2 Two similar L-shaped side walls 4 and 5 are located at the edges of the base and back wall, the webs 6 and 7 of the side walls having thesame dimensions as each other. The record stand 1 issub-divided by an L- shaped separation wall 8, which corresponds to the shape of, and is parallel to, the side walls 4,5. The webs 9, 10 of the separation wall 8 are, however, slightly shorter than the webs 6,7 of the side walls 4, 5. The webs of the side walls 4, 5 and of the separation wall 8 are of a depth sufficient to ensure that the gramaphone records are adequately supported when the records are placed in the stand with two edges of the sleeves abutting the base 2 and the back wall 3. A web depth of about 40 mm. has been found sufficient. The record stand 1 is manufactured in one piece by injection moulding from a suitable plastics material.

The record stand preferably has three separation walls spaced equally between the side walls. In this ex ample the record stand is capable of accommodating between 25 and 30 gramaphone records.

The side walls and the separation wall or walls have rounded corners to prevent damage to the records, and to improve the appearance of the record stand. I claim:

1. A stand for supporting flat plate-like articles, particularly phonograph records in their jackets, consisting of a body open along two adjacent sides, saidbody comprising a rectangular base arranged to extend substantially horizontally, a rectangular back disposed substantially perpendicularly to said base and arranged to extend upwardly from said base, a pair of laterally spaced L-shaped side walls secured to said base and back and extending from the same sides of said base and back, wherein the improvement comprises that said body is free-standing and is formed unitarily of a synthetic plastic material and said base and back each have the same dimensions and can be used interchangeably as said base or back, eachsaid L-shaped side wall having a pair of webs, one of said webs extending along and for the length of an edge of said'base and the other said web extending along and for the length of an edge of said back, the dimension upwardly from said base of one of said webs extending along said base and the dimension extending outwardly from said back of the other said web is the same and is considerably less than the length dimension of said webs, at least one L-shaped partition formed integrally with and extending upwardly from said base and outwardly from said back, said L-shaped partition being disposed in laterally spaced substantially parallel relationship with and between said L-shaped side walls, said partition extending from the common edge of said base and back and including a pair of webs with each web having a length less than the length of said webs of said side walls so that the free ends of said webs of said L-shaped to articles positioned in the stand. 

1. A stand for supporting flat plate-like articles, particularly phonograph records in their jackets, consisting of a body open along two adjacent sides, said body comprising a rectangular base arranged to extend substantially horizontally, a rectangular back disposed substantially perpendicularly to said base and arranged to extend upwardly from said base, a pair of laterally spaced Lshaped side walls secured to said base and back and extending from the same sides of said base and back, wherein the improvement comprises that said body is free-standing and is formed unitarily of a synthetic plastic material and said base and back each have the same dimensions and can be used interchangeably as said base or back, each said L-shaped side wall having a pair of webs, one of sAid webs extending along and for the length of an edge of said base and the other said web extending along and for the length of an edge of said back, the dimension upwardly from said base of one of said webs extending along said base and the dimension extending outwardly from said back of the other said web is the same and is considerably less than the length dimension of said webs, at least one L-shaped partition formed integrally with and extending upwardly from said base and outwardly from said back, said L-shaped partition being disposed in laterally spaced substantially parallel relationship with and between said L-shaped side walls, said partition extending from the common edge of said base and back and including a pair of webs with each web having a length less than the length of said webs of said side walls so that the free ends of said webs of said L-shaped partition are recessed inwardly from the plane containing the free ends of said webs of said side walls, said partition dividing the space between said side walls to form individual storage spaces each capable of holding a plurality of the records in their jackets, and the intersection of the edges of said webs of said side walls and of said webs of said partition spaced outwardly from said base and back are rounded off to prevent damage to articles positioned in the stand. 